Update

You may have noticed that I haven’t written many notes lately. Chalk it up to not having much to say, but I really haven’t been sure what to write about… Should I write about life with an unemployed spouse? Should I write about how I feel about my own work? Should I post about my general restlessness or my thankfulness for spring (even with the onslaught of allergies).

Here is a quick recap of my trip to Memphis...
Last week/weekend I was able to spend a lovely five days with my (very pregnant) sister and her husband. Also saw my parents, grandma, great aunt and uncle and my sister’s in-laws. However, I did miss that my little brother couldn’t come visit, but that is life these days, you take what you can get…

Besides visiting with family, the highlight of the weekend was attending my sister's baby shower and surprising her with my gift... Five years ago, when Daniel and I went to Papua New Guinea, we bought a bilum for carrying babies. We figured someday, we would either use this bilum ourselves or we would share it with my siblings. To be truthful, I had forgotten about it until a few days before my flight to Memphis. I am so happy I remembered because when my sister opened it, she started crying because it was such an unexpected and special gift because she was actually born in PNG.

Angela with the bilum

And now a brief update on the unemployment status...
I figured that it is about time to give an update on how things are going with Daniel and the job search. To be truthful, we agreed that he should put off serious job hunting to allow time to study for his Professional Engineering (PE) licensure test, which thankfully he took last Friday. He feels good about the test, but we won’t know the results for a couple of months.

Now that he has extra time on his hands, he is focusing on finishing our house renovations. This week he is actually working on a house project for a friend, but I am anxious to get our basement and master bathroom finished.

At this point, we are taking life one week at a time. The job market continues to look bad in the Charlotte area, last I saw, unemployment is hovering around 12% and civil engineering job openings are practically non existent.

He has passed the one-month mark for unemployment and we are finding that we are able to live within our means and even save a bit. This is encouraging. It would be nice for Daniel to get a job, but this gives us some leeway for him to find a good job, hopefully in a good location. We are not really sure what the future holds for us, but in the mean time, we are not stressing about it.